by Calculated Risk on 1/25/2022 08:59:00 PM

Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

• At 10:00 AM, New Home Sales for December from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for 760 thousand SAAR, up from 744 thousand in November.

• At 2:00 PM, FOMC Meeting Statement. The FOMC is expected to announce the final asset purchases.

• At 2:30 PM, Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a press briefing following the FOMC announcement.

On COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):

COVID Metrics
	Now	Week Ago	Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated	63.5%	---	≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions)	210.7	---	≥2321
New Cases per Day3	692,359	737,733	≤5,0002
Hospitalized3	142,814	143,339	≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3🚩	2,166	1,791	≤502
1 Minimum to achieve "herd immunity" (estimated between 70% and 85%). 2my goals to stop daily posts, 37-day average for Cases, Currently Hospitalized, and Deaths 🚩 Increasing 7-day average week-over-week for Cases, Hospitalized, and Deaths ✅ Goal met.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the daily (columns) and 7-day average (line) of positive tests reported.

New cases are now declining.

Unfortunately, deaths are still rising - now averaging over 2 thousand deaths per day - but well below the previous 7-day average record of 3,421 in January 2021.